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VI Session 1, Wyverns and Wolves
The city of Mungu has very strict entry requirements. Those without goods to trade, relatives to see or are carrying weapons are generally turned away. Those who do not make it into the city, are welcomed in the small village outside the city walls. The Jade Lady Boarding House is one of many places that cater to travelers who are barred from the city gates. It is owned and operated by an elderly woman named Shibowei. The Jade Lady has large rooms and is comforting for those of extreme sizes, existing outside the city gate allows for it’s patrons to come and go unseen and it is run by a cousin of Kimchiwei, allowing the elderly mystic to stay at a substantial discount. Shibowei eagerly greets a half-orc who wanders into the boarding house. The Sauri clan half Guaiwog introduces himself as Hauri Irigosha and offers to work in the kitchen in exchange for a room. Settling down for the evening, a Korobokuru woman named Finellen Dankil, who is passing through on her way East, is having difficulty sleeping. Finellen's thoughts travel back to the man from earlier today, standing in the street outside the city gates, screaming about immortality. He was a middle aged man, obviously a war veteran, but he wore the dark blue robes of clan Wei, and his companion, the foreigner who violently threw him into the warehouse across the street, also wore blue robes, but with a bronze dragon decal across each shoulder. Inkha, a young shanren girl, who had been attempting to sleep on the street, saw the exchange between the Wei man and the foreigner. She grows suspicious of the warehouse and attempts to climb a window. As she does this, Kimchiwei, the relative of the boarding house keeper and local eccentric watches her with interest. Inside, Inkha sees very little. A simple warehouse, filled with barrels and crates. She turns to leave and is startled by Kimchiwei's bizarre appearance. She leaps to the street to confront the old man, but both are surprised to see the warehouse door creak open and a young man walk quietly out, leading a horse and rider as silently as possible. The young man notices Inkha and Kimchiwei but ignores them and creeps out of town, leaving the warehouse door open. Inkha takes her chance to sneak into the open building, finding the crates and tarps to be hallow on one side, hiding the true contents of the warehouse; horses, weapons, armour and barrel after barrel of dragon powder, all obviously new and western in origin. Kimchiwei peaks around the corner into the darkened building startling the horses with his grotesque mask. The horses begin to stamp nervously and are only agitated more when Inkha attempts to soothe them. The horses begin violently kicking Kimchiwei hustles back to the boarding house but is stopped short as one of the bronze cannons is kicked by a horse and blows a 2 meter wide hole in the side of the warehouse. Panic ensues from the village as the cannon fire echoes through the streets. Hauri and Finellen run out of the Jade Lady and into the street along with dozens of nearby village folk. The sound of western cannon fire and the rush of bodies rightly sets off many edgy war veterans who draw weapons on each other. This is only made worse by the sight of 5 men in western style plate mail marching down the street in their direction. Most people scatter at the sight of the armored figures and Kim, Inkha, Finellen and Hauri duck back into the Jade Lady. Sir Valdemar Wynst along with 4 armed escorts and old man Wei bust into the boarding house, muskets pointed at the patrons. Valdemar demands to know where the boy went. The party shuffle around uncomfortably without answering. Valdemar approaches Inkha with anger on his face. He raises a cavalier pistol, pointing it in the air before asking again. Kimchiwei breaks and points towards the East, saying that the boy left, leading a horse less than an hour ago. Valdemar lowers his pistol and orders two of his guards to stay behind in case the boy returns. He leaves in a hurry, loading himself, two guards and old man Wei into a horse drawn cart. As they ready themselves to head out, Inkha slips past the guards and crawls under the cart. They head East after the mysterious thief with the monk stowing away. The party huddle up worried that Valdemar may be holding old man Wei hostage, and concerned for the safety of the beggar girl, Inkha. Kimchiwei asks his cousin to borrow several horses and she agrees with the understanding that they will be returned unscathed. They slip past the guards who do not react to questions spoken in Kalkanu seem uninterested in keeping them captive in any way. The cart is easy to follow from a distance, being the only lantern in the spring night. It stops at a fork in the road several miles outside of Mungu. Inkha, still clinging to the underside of the cart overhear old man Wei tell Valdemar that the tracks leave the road heading into the nearby hills. The two untie the horses from the cart and follow the tracks, leaving Inkha and a Wynst guard behind. The party and Inkha waste no time in flanking and subduing the guard. They knock him unconscious and leave him tied to the horseless cart. Following the tracks, the party is ambushed by 3 wolf-like creatures. The monster's prove to be more formidable than they first appear and show no signs of fear or self preservation. They do not bleed when injured or leave corpses when they die, instead disappearing into a gust of ashy wind. Finellen immediately recognizes them as a a western wizards summon spell, having seen it done many times during the war. The tracks lead them to a small cave, outside stand Valdemar Wynst and old man Wei. The party's approach does not go unnoticed and immediately weapons are drawn. Sir Wynst recognizes the patrons of the Jade Lady and raises his pistol at Hauri. The half-orc attempts to intimidate westerner to no avail. Valdemar insists that he wasn't the first orc he's killed and won't be the last. Wei interrupts and pushes his way between the two. He asks if they are friends of Yan and when it is revealed that they are not, he admits that Yan's behavior brings shame to his clan. According to Mungu law, such thieves are executed. In order to avoid and international incident he asks the party to talk the foolish boy out of whatever he has planned. The party enter the cavern which seems to have been outfitted as some sort of smuggler's den. Baskets and sacks of dried goods and silks are tossed against the wall around several cots, a hearth and a table. A wooden door and a curtain block off two additional rooms. As they carefully approach the wooden door the voice of a young man shouts out and a gilded bagua sword cuts down into Hauri's flesh. Yan pauses long enough for Finellen to attempt to convince him to leave, He drops his guard and informs them that Kari Wynst, Valdemar's daughter is held in the closed room, the party simply needs to knock three times and she will come out. Inkha discards this advice and swings the door open exposing Kari, the young half-elf as she completes a summoning ritual. Three vicious wolved materialize and immediately pounce on Inkha. Yan continues his brutal attack on Hauri, apparently unswayed by the party's attempts to convince them to give up. Kari and Yan gain the upper hand in the fight and Finellen attepts one final plea. Yan's stamina against Hauri is quicky diminishing and he makes a suggestion. If the party leave, pretending that Yan and Kari are dead, they can escape and be together. Yan cautiously backs up to the curtain and reveals three recently killed humans. He insists that they were probobly smugglers and were easy to kill. Kari pipes up from the other room saying that they were going to use the smuggler's corpses to fake their own deaths. Finellen is horrified at the thought and the party outright refuse to take part in such macabre deceit. Backed into a corner, Yan and Kari know that they will never be together unless they can fight their way out. They continue to press the attack against the party until Yan is dealt a final crippling blow from Hauri's studded club and goes down. Kari's face immediately goes blank at the sight of her love's body crumpling under the orc's weapon. She backs up through the open door and slams it closed. Valdemar and old man Wei enter the cavern, hearing the sounds of combat. Wei callously steps over the fallen Inkha and Kimchiwei as Valdemar kneels down to heal them. Old man Wei draggs his unconsious son towards the entrance of the cave as the rest of the party back up to give Valdemar space to confront his renegade daughter. Inkha and Kimchiwei, barely conscious after Valdemar saved them from the brink of death, watch curiously as Valdemar forces the door open. Their curiosity immediately turns to panic as Kari, surrounded by broken casks of dragon powder, ignites a small fire in the palm of her hand. Hours pass before any other sounds a heard. Finellen stirs and sits up, covered in dust and squinting at the bright daylight flooding the cavern entrance. Old man Wei, Yan, Hauri, Inkha and Kimchiwei also begin to stir. The blast through the cavern had knocked them all unconsious for several hours. Their heads swim at first but they eventually regain their composure. Looking back, they notice that the majority of the cave, as well as a good portion of the hillside have collapsed. What's worse, the horses Kimchiwei borrowed from his cousin are gone. 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